2/4/08

Oldest Rabbinic Group in U.S. Bans Voting for Anti-Family Values Candidates

On the eve of Super Tuesday the oldest Orthodox Jewish Rabbinic organization in the country issued a historic declaration.

Rabbi Yehuda Levin, spokesman for the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada issued the following statement:

"It is very important for our community to demonstrate its appreciation for our wonderful country by exercising our civic obligation to vote. However, it is even more important that we do not support any candidate whose position is in any way antithetical to our Torah based morality. Candidates who support abortion on demand, the homosexual agenda, liberal attitudes towards pornography of any sort -- are antithetical to our way of life and it is forbidden to support or vote for them.

"Our former president, internationally acknowledged as the premier legal decisor, Rabbi Moshe Feinstien was most vigorous in condemning abortion on demand and the homosexual agenda and we take his legacy as our guide.

"If one has to vote in an election or primary where both candidates are anti-Biblical family values, G-d forbid, that they use the "lesser of two evils" approach. Rather, let the voter cast a write-in protest vote, but do not compromise by voting for the "lesser evil". If we value the purity and holiness of our children and grandchildren, we dare not compromise.

"It is our sincere hope that not only our own Jewish community, but our fellow citizens of all faiths, and their leaders, will draw a line in the sand and institute policies forbidding voting for anti-traditional family-values candidates. We are confident that were this policy instituted, within one or two election cycles, we would find many more pro-family candidates on every level of government."

Background:

A Chasidic Rabbinic group, the Central Rabbinical Congress of U.S. and Canada issued a similar manifesto in March of 1982 which they advertised in the New York Daily News. Similar declarations were issued by Rabbis in New York as recently as 2005.